Jan 09, 2026 Tips for Sermon Listening in 2026 – Words of Grace Blog – January 9, 2026
We started our year last Sunday in prayer. We heard of steadfast prayer from Colossians 4 and then gathered to pray in the evening.
Along with praying together in 2026, we will spend each Lord’s Day letting the word of Christ dwell richly among us in the form of the sermon (Colossians 3:16). The sermon, along with prayer, is a God-ordained means of grace for the church (2 Timothy 4:1-2).
As a pastor who preaches, I prefer to think of the sermon not as my presentation to the congregation but as the Lord’s word to us. My hope is that the sermon is not a passive experience for you but an active experience for me and you as together we examine, believe, and receive the word the Holy Spirit is implanting in our souls. That word is not a fresh revelation to us each Sunday, but the revealed word of God in Scripture that is freshly applied to us with all its varied benefits: truth, comfort, conviction, correction, instruction, equipping, and spiritual vitality.
So, take a moment to think about how you listen to the sermon for greater active engagement with God’s word. Here are a few thoughts that may help you.
Before the Sermon
The best way I know to prepare for hearing the sermon on Sunday is to pray through the Parable of the Sower, Seed, and Soils from Mark 4:1-20. Do this on Saturday or early Sunday morning. Ask the Lord to soften, deepen, and declutter your heart to make it receptive to his word.
Review the previous week’s sermon text. Remind yourself where we are in the current sermon series. Then read the text for Sunday. Go ahead and think about how the Lord may speak to you and our congregation from his word.
Get to church on time. Enter expecting the Lord to build your life and our congregation through his truth. Sing and pray before the sermon as a way of worshipping and preparing your heart for receiving the word.
During the Sermon
Pray, pray, pray. Throughout the sermon, pray for me or whoever is preaching, for yourself, and for our congregation.
Sit where you can concentrate. Have a Bible you can hold and see comfortably. Think about other physical aspects you can arrange or remove to help you listen better.
Listen actively. Seek to understand, expand, and apply what you are reading and hearing.
If you are a note-taker, use the system that works for you. If you are not a note-taker, try to formulate in your own thinking a main message and a faithful response to the word preached.
After the Sermon
Take the sermon text and message with you. Hold it in your mind. Discuss it with a friend or at home. Pray over it in your personal reading that week. Find ways to savor the word. Give thanks to God for his gift to us.
I look forward to growing in grace through God’s word with you in 2026.
-Scott